Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Forums

Science Fiction Awards Watch has an interesting conversation going entitled:  Those Awful Awards

it got me thinking about the awards a bunch and i posted a reply there that i've included below.  i'd love to hear what you all think on this subject.

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this is a topic near and dear to my heart.  personally, i love the awards. i find them very useful as "a good place to start" when looking for a new book or even a new author.  the awards lists tend to weed out the crap.  you can usually count on them to be good, if not always, great books.  i look for books that appear on multiple lists as an indication of quality.  those books have qualified, been selected and voted on, through the various methods employed by the different awards committies to make it onto their lists.  no small feat, methinks.

now, are the awards completely fair?  no, not completely.  they are all flawed to some extent but what award process is 100% fair?

yes there is some favoritism.  if you're a well know author or a past winner or if you have a large fan base you have an advantage.  but those guys got on the list at some point without those advantages and so too do many a new author.  have you heard of Michael Chabon?  The Yiddish Policeman's Union has alread won the Nebula and been nominated for Hugo, Campbell and Locus.  he's completely new to me but you can bet his book is on my reading list!

do politics play a part in the awards?  you bet.  some authors/publishers campaign for their books.  this is a business folks.  these guys are trying to make a living.  they'd be fools not to do whatever they can to get their name/product out.  some folks don't like this reality.  i accept it and keep it in the back of my mind when i look over the nominees.

nationalism affects the results?  of course it does.  do people vote based soley on the authors nationality? generally speaking, i'm unaware of nationality and i suspect most others are this way as well.

do fans skew the results?  certainly.  devoted fans that want to help their favorites is the reward authors earn for the books they write.

have the voters read all the books up for nomination?  probably not.  in fact that's the reason i offer as to why i don't vote.  does that mean the results are useless?  i don't think so.  we fans share reccommendations on what to read and what to skip.  the books that get a lot of buzz get read more and consequently get more noms.  this seems fair enough to me.

going a little long now so i'll wrap it up here.  i think we can all agree that there are real issues with the way the awards are handled but they are rather minor in the grand scheme of things.  the awards are and will remain a great tool for the industry and especially us readers.  if you use them as a guide in choosing your next book you stand a pretty good chance of coming out a winner yourself.  just keep in mind that they are not perfect and that there are quality books that don't make the lists too.visit WWEnd, be sure to drop us a note in the forum.  we'd love to know what you think of the site!

* shameless plug for WWEnd removed cause you're already here if you're reading this

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i could have gone on quite a bit more but it was getting too long as it was.  what do you guys think?

- dave

for me, if i know a book is an award winner i'll give it a second look.  if it's somebody i've never heard of, that award nomination gives me better comfort level in trying them out.  it helps me narrow the odds in my favor when i'm plunking down my hard earned cash.

- dave